Mr Obama goes to London and the Republicans go tea-bagging

The Obama administration is speeding towards the significant milestone of 100 days in office and so, taking a break from putting the Republican dinosaurs to the sword and saving the US economy, Emperor Barack decided to spread the love and visit Europe for the G 20 summit. While over there he also saw fit to drop by Buckingham Palace to have tea with Betty and Phil. It was interesting to see the Fleet Street piranhas going into paroxysms of outrage over the touchy-feely exchange that took place between the Queen and Michelle Obama. It was first reported that the First Lady had touched the Queen. This rapidly became a “hug” in the reports and every hack media pundit then took centre stage to debate whether there had been some breach of royal protocol. After repeated viewings of the video evidence, however, it was decided that the Queen had actually made the first move and put her arm on Michelle’s back and that it was only then that Michelle had responded in kind. It was all put into perspective for me by the wags on the NPR radio Show “Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me” who observed that the Queen had said that there was nothing at all wrong with the contact, but that she was wondering why Michelle hadn’t called!!
It prompted me to think that this was a far cry from the moment some twenty years ago when PM Keating attempted to squire the Queen – prompting the press to dub him the “Lizard of Oz”. No such vitriol for the First Lady. Clearly there is still a lot of love for the First Couple over there in Europe. I am even willing to forgive the President for dissing on our very own Prime Minister’s choice of footwear (note to Kevin: simply wearing RM Williams to state functions does not turn you into the rakish character played by Hugh Jackman in the movie Australia and it is ludicrous to try and defend an appalling fashion faux pas by claiming that you are supporting Australian industry. Sorry Kev but I am with Barack on this one. I would suggest you check with Paul Keating for some fashion tips).
The US press, while bemused at the British concerns over the possible affront to the royal person, were not nearly as measured in their response to Barack’s meeting with King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. In greeting the King it was alleged that Barack had bowed, infuriating the conservative US commentators who frothed that the leader of the free world had no reason to be bowing to any other foreign dignitary.
While denouncing Barack for showing no leadership and grovelling before a foreign (and Arab to boot) dignitary the US conservatives then turned around and confirmed that they are profoundly mentally deficient, by charging that he was now …a despotic tyrant!!! No wonder the export of democracy is such a fragile enterprise, when there is such a tenuous grasp of the whole process!! I loved the take that Jon Stewart put it on the whole Republican frothing at the mouth when he told them they were confusing tyranny with losing the election and that “Now that you’re in the minority its supposed to taste like shit taco”. Not exactly eloquent but perhaps phrased in the only way that the Neanderthals from the Republican Party might understand. Alas it was not to be.
The lead up to the date for the filing of tax returns prompted those crazy funny guys from the Grand Ol’ Party to decide to protest against the oppressive tax regime of the Obama government by staging a re-enactment of the Boston Tea party. It was the Boston Tea Party in 1773 when the Americans dumped tea into the Potomac River in Boston (dressed as Native Americans) to protest at the oppressive excise levied by the British colonial government. By all accounts the protest, which was presented by the Fox propaganda machine as a “populist outpouring” of grassroots anger was actually a well synchronised media event. Originally the main protest was meant to involve the dumping of a million teabags into the Potomac River, this was changed because of concerns with environmental laws and the site was shifted to the dumping by tip truck of the teabags of Lafayette Park, but it didn’t eventuate because of an issue with permits. It did seem to me, I confess, to make a mockery of any sense of recapturing the revolutionary zeal of the original Tea Party protest – they might be mad as hell (or maybe just mad) but those conservatives are still law abiding citizens. Aside from the central protests that were to take place in Boston and Washington the “spontaneous” display of grassroots outrage at the Federal government was supposed to unfold across the nation in six hundred places. I think there was even going to be a protest here in San Diego! For coverage of the tea-bagging protests the Huffington Post site has some good pics (and I am not even to go there with the ribald innuendo that has followed from the ill-advised decision to shift from leaf tea to tea bags).

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/15/tea-party-photos-tax-day_n_186752.html

The point that seems to have been missed in all of this by the anti-government protestors is that none of the taxes have been levied by the Obama government or, for that matter, the bail-out is directly attributable to the Obama regime. He inherited the car wreck and all of it was concocted in the shadow of the last days of the Bush (mis)rule. Somehow however in the deluded minds of the conservatives the bail-out is an Obama plot to increase taxes while also extending the reach of the central government. The somewhat tenuous grasp of economic (and political) reality of the Republicans has been highlighted by the high jinks of North Carolina Senator Richard Burr who told a reporter from the Charlotte Observer newspaper that he had been so disconcerted by a briefing he had received on the state of the banks that he had rung his wife and told her that he would not be home for the weekend but that she go to the ATM and withdraw the maximum funds, and to go back on the following days to do the same. Given that the bank deposits have been federally guaranteed and the most that can be withdrawn from an ATM per day is $480 (and you could just walk into the bank and fill out a withdrawal slip to close your account) it sort of summed up the Republicans measured and strategic strategy to winning back office!! Brings to mind the Chicken Little/Henny Penny fable “the Sky is Falling” – they are running around screaming the “economy is failing, the banks are going under”. Sad when a child’s nursery tale is the best analogy for what passes for Republican Party policy. The one silver lining from these tales of idiocy from the GOP is that there might be a revival in at least one sector of the economy. I hear that shares in Liptons and Bushells have gone through the roof in the last few days.